3 posts from February 2008

After two weeks the Blackjack II and I agreed on an amicable split due to irreconcilable differences. I really tried to adapt to Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone Edition and I tried to adapt it to me. However in the end we just couldn't work it out.

The Blackjack II isn't at fault, its a great phone. I can honestly say it's the best cell phone I've ever had. The strength of the wireless signal and the voice quality during calls were the best I've ever had. As a phone I'd give it a 5 star rating. However, as a PDA I'd have to give it 3 stars. The limitations that Microsoft put on the Smartphone Edition of Windows Mobile 6 just make it so hard for me to work with.

I understand that they had to sacrifice some things in order to use it without the touch screen that the Pocket PC based phones have, but it goes beyond that. It's they way they decided that you don't need to be able to do more than the most basic entry of new task and calendar functions on the phone. Not being able to set custom occurrences without syncing to my PC where I could actually edit them was a pain.

I also found it to be difficult to use because you can't customize the Today screen and you can't customize the menus and folders that applications are kept in. Also, you can't create new Word or Excel files, Any of these things is possible on the Professional version or Windows Mobile on the Pocket PC.

Clearly I either need a Windows Mobile Professional phone or I need to get a Palm Treo. My first option was the AT&T/HTC Tilt wiht a full touch screen and keyboard but it was too expensive at 3x the price of the Blackjack II. The Palm Treo 750 is in between the Tilt and Blackjack II because it's got the same layout as the Blackjack II but the touch screen and OS of the Tilt. It's only 50% more than the Blackjack II so it's reasonable.

I chose the third option, the new Palm Centro. It actually came out right after I got my Blackjack II so I didn't even consider it at the time. It's got the touch screen and Palm OS I have been familiar with for the last 9 years but it's got the size and keyboard of the Blackjack II. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the Blackjack II. There's no GPS and the camera is only 1.3MP, not 2+MP. It's also missing the G3 data speed. Still, it makes up for those shortcomings with a familiar OS and touch screen. Also, I can use all my old applications and don't need to buy new ones.

I'll follow up with more of my experiences with my new Centro later.

I've wanted a smartphone for a while now. After nine years of Palm PDAs I am finally dumping Palm for Windows Mobile. Last week I took the plunge and got a smartphone.

On my lunch break I drove over to the AT&T Wireless office and picked up a beautiful new burgundy Samsung Blackjack II. It's a beautiful shiny red phone. It' a little bit smaller than my Palm Zire 72 but it's replacing both my Palm and my Cingular Sync.

So far there are some good and bad things about this change.

The good is that the Blackjack II has a great screen, a usable keyboard, a good contact manager, and it has the best reception of any phone I have ever had. It even gets a full signal in some parts of my office.

For reference, my building is, to paraphrase Patrick Norton, "where wireless signals go to die." I am typically lucky to have any signal and others I know with AT&T have similar experience.

On the bad side, I am not familiar with Windows Mobile because I've never really used it before. I have spent hours exploring the various menus and folders. I've been poking around every nook and cranny looking for all the things that I am familiar with from the Palm OS.

There are things that I used to do that don't work as well as well or aren't as obvious as I am used to. I'm also not happy with the task and calendar function. While Palm had a much more limited number of fields, it was easier to enter todo items and calendars.

Finally there is the launcher. I used Zlauncher on the palm because I was never happy with the limited features of the Palm launcher. I'm not fond of the Windows Mobile Today/Start solution either. I am looking at a different solution.

Overall I like the Blackjack II and I am optimistic that in the end I can make it work for me.

Note: I typed the above on my Blackjack and it looked like a lot more on my little screen.

Last night Bonnie and I caucused for the first time. It was very exciting to go down to Victor's elementary school and stand up for our candidate. The turnout was amazing and it was so great to see all the committed Democrats coming out for their candidate.

We started out in the cafeteria but our precinct had too many people and was moved to the art room. In the end we had 46 people. It was a diverse group that ranged in my estimation from 21 to 80 years of age. There was a good division of men and women. In our initial vote we had about seven undecided voters.

We had about a half an hour of debate with some good speakers who made good points for their candidates. There were also passionate speakers who did nothing to convince me that they had thought their decision through. In the end all but one was persuaded to vote for Obama. Our final vote for precinct 94 was 31 for Obama and 15 for Hillary.

Then we voted for our delegates to the county meeting. Our Hillary delegate was a 21 year old college student. She was very excited to be chosen. Our two delegates for Obama were a middle-aged man and woman. The man seemed to be very knowledgeable and had experience working on Capital Hill several years ago. The woman said she had been a Republican until two months and two days ago. She said three men had made her a Democrat; Bush, Cheney, and Obama. Her story was inspiring and she was very optimistic about the prospect of a President Obama. I think our three delegates are excellent choices and I hope that some of them can be elected as delegates at the next level of the nomination process.

I also put my name in to be a delegate and was elected as an alternate. I'm OK with this since the first two were so well suited to perform the task.

In the end our efforts combined with the rest of the state to give Obama a 2-1 win over Hillary in Colorado. The reports of the turnout for the Democrats are five times the previous year's Democrat turnout. It was also more than double the turnout for the Republican caucus.

I can't hope but to feel optimistic that this trend of the Democrats turning out twice the number of voters as the Republicans is a sign of how the general election will go in November.